My mind would boggle if I had any boggles left. Cardinal Dolan, head of the USCCB and the ostensible leader of the fight against the unholy Obamacare mandates, admits that his own Diocese directly pays for employee health plans that cover contraception and abortion. Yes, the Cardinal Dolan and the Archdiocese of NY pay for the killing of children. Their excuse? They do it under protest. Well, I am sure that will make the dead babies feel better to know that they were killed 'under protest.' via NYT But even as Cardinal Dolan insists that requiring some religiously affiliated employers...

With his new book, “American Church: The Remarkable Rise, Meteoric Fall, and Uncertain Future of Catholicism in America” (Ignatius Press), mild-mannered Russell Shaw has become the bull in the china shop of U.S. Catholic history, knocking heroes off pedestals and overturning conventional story-lines—all in aid of trying to understand why the Church in America is in precarious position today vis-ŕ-vis the ambient public culture and the government. Shaw’s answer: we’re in deep trouble because of a longstanding U.S. Catholic determination to be more-American-than-thou—to disprove ancient charges of Catholicism’s incompatibility with American democracy by assimilating so dramatically that there’s no discernible...

Members of the Free Syrian Army reportedly attacked the Christian-dominated al-Duvair village in Reef on the outskirts of Homs on Monday, where they massacred its citizens, including women and children, before the Syrian Army interfered. This reported attack comes shortly after intense fighting in the city of al-Qusseir over the weekend, in which Bashar Al-Assad’s forces inflicted heavy casualties on the rebels. Assad’s forces launched an offensive in April in an effort to cut off supply lines to the rebels by taking the city and its surrounding areas from the rebel groups that had been entrenched there since last year....

**I originally wrote this a week ago for another publication. This past Pentecost Sunday, I sat in my pew and listened to the reading. I heard how the Apostles, our first Bishops, after receiving the Holy Spirit preached to the multitudes gathered in Jerusalem. I heard how each person, no matter their language, could clearly understand everything said. I thought to myself, what a great miracle. Some of our Bishops speak the same language as I do, but I don't understand what they are saying at all. Last week, during a radio interview, Cardinal Dolan was asked several questions about...

The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Pell, has admitted to a Victorian parliamentary inquiry that some members of the Church tried to cover up child sexual abuse by other members of the clergy, and has apologised for decades of child sex abuse within the Church, the ABC reports. Cardinal George Pell told the inquiry he was "fully apologetic and absolutely sorry" about decades of child sex abuse within the Church. Some members of the packed public gallery wept as Cardinal Pell was forced to answer questions about the Church's systemic cover-up of cases of rape of children as young as five-years...

(Vatican Radio) The Vatican Secretariat of State issued a tweet on Monday: “Intolerance against Christians, especially in the name of ‘tolerance’, should be condemned publicly.” The tweet referenced a Statement of the Holy See delivered by Bishop Mario Toso, SDB, at the High Level Conference on Tolerance and Non-discrimination (including Human Rights Youth Education), which took place May 21-22 in Tirana, Albania. The Conference was held under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Since the last High Level Conference, Bishop Toso said, “examples of intolerance and discrimination against Christians have not diminished, but rather...

Sochi, May 27, Interfax - President Vladimir Putin received Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Patriarch Theophilos of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Palestine at his residence in Sochi on Monday. Putin invited Patriarch Theophilos to join celebrations of the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia. "I hope to see you during celebrations of the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia," Putin said. He wished the patriarch of Jerusalem "a useful stay in Russia." The patriarch of Jerusalem has never been in Russia on a visit. Putin also thanked Patriarch Theophilos for supporting Russia's...

In the face of the recent decision by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to admit openly practising homosexuals into the organisation, an exodus of Catholics from the BSA is under way. Already thousands have responded to the call of Dr. Taylor Marshall to create the Catholic "Scouts of Saint George."

As the nation’s leading Roman Catholic bishop, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York has been spearheading the fight against a provision of the new health care law that requires employers, including some that are religiously affiliated, to cover birth control in employee health plans. But even as Cardinal Dolan insists that requiring some religiously affiliated employers to pay for contraception services would be an unprecedented, and intolerable, government intrusion on religious liberty, the archdiocese he heads has quietly been paying for such coverage, albeit reluctantly and indirectly, for thousands of its unionized employees for over a decade. The Archdiocese...

When Cardinal Bergoglio was first chosen as Pope, my immediate reaction was that, although he would probably not tamper with the Church’s views on sexual issues, he would likely move it to the left in terms of economic rhetoric. I based that to some small degree on his choice of name: Saint Francis is something of a favorite of progressives in the Church due to his vow of poverty and his love of animals. But even more important to me was the intellectual milieu out of which he came: Argentine populism, and his own public statements as a cardinal in...

Police surrounded a Chinese village on Sunday to prevent pilgrims from joining a Catholic parade to honour the Virgin Mary, who locals say appeared in the village a century ago. Authorities placed roadblocks on main roads leading to the small village of Donglu, just a few hours drive from Beijing, where locals – about 90 per cent of whom are Catholic – are fiercely devoted to Mary. Police don’t let any outsiders into the village during May... it’s been like that for years “Police don’t let any outsiders into the village during May... it’s been like that for years,” a...

Perhaps we need to pray for the second coming After reading headlines and the news this morning, I realized that the only way out of our rush to chaos, is to find a leader who can awaken the sleeping, invigorate the downhearted, punish the guilty and annihilate the evil.

What are golden calves for? To be ridden by kings. The story in Exodus is a story of people enslaved to the state, led by God to freedom, but who keep lapsing back to the security of Egypt with its divine king and its steady meals and without the burden of choice. Moses was on the mountain receiving The Book of the Covenant, the civil implementation of the ten commandments, a short national constitution with a small state and strong protections of property rights. While he did that, the people reverted, and tried to reconstitute Egypt and its political cult....

MANILA, Philippines (CNS) -- A Chinese priest who recently arrived in the Philippines said that, this year, he did not make his usual May trek up Sheshan hill outside Shanghai, where thousands of pilgrims offer special prayers to Mary, Help of Christians. Speaking to Catholic News Service on the condition of anonymity, the priest said that, until he left China, Shanghai priests -- who currently have no bishop -- were still discussing how to proceed with the month's largest pilgrimage, May 24. Shanghai Bishop Jin Luxian died April 27; his Vatican-approved successor, Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin, is under house arrest....

(Reuters) - Pope Francis on Wednesday urged Catholics in China to remain loyal to the Vatican, whose authority is challenged by China's Communist rulers. China's Catholics number between 8 and 12 million and are divided between the state-sanctioned Catholic Patriotic Association, which has installed bishops without Vatican approval, and an "underground" wing loyal to the Vatican that rejects state control. Francis's predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, made May 24 a day dedicated to prayer for China's Catholics. Francis said at his weekly audience in St. Peter's Square that he prayed that China's Catholics would receive "the grace to announce Christ with...

*** Russia has no honest allies in issues relating to the prevention of aggressive IslamismMoscow, May 22, Interfax - Radical Islamism is now present in 55 regions of Russia, General Anatoly Kulikov, former interior minister of Russia and president of the Russian Military Commanders Club, said at the conference Islamism and National Security of Russia held on Wednesday. "Of all existing threats, the most real threat to Russia is radical political Islam, or Islamism, which has declared a jihad in our country," Kulikov told the conference. Kulikov recalled that "Islamist centers have been at war with us since the time...

It is often believed that people who have PhDs are possessed of higher self-esteem and greater independent thought than the average population. As a PhD myself, I fully understand why people believe this. The rigorous studying, testing, and writing required to receive a doctorate should free the PhD's mind from the idols of the marketplace and teach him that great truth that Socrates discovered: the more we learn, the more we realize what we do not know. That's what should happen. What I have more often found (in myself, as well as in others) is that the knowledge acquired puffs...

“Freemasonry, Vatican II and 1960” By John Salza Consecration Now Conference Rome, May 13, 2011 There is a body of clear and compelling testimony from the likes of Cardinal Pacelli (future Pope Pius XII), Fr. Fuentes, Fr. Alonso, Fr. Schweigl ,Cardinal Oddi, Cardinal Ciappi, Fr. Malachi Martin, and even Cardinal Ratzinger (the future pope Benedict XVI) that the Third Secret of Fatima, not yet revealed by the Vatican, predicts a spiritual crisis in the bosom of the Church. In this presentation, I am going to elaborate on this theme, by demonstrating that this crisis is nothing less than a world...

First Prayer in Congress, September 1774, in Carpenters Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Washington D.C., May 22, 2013 / 12:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a move that could have national consequences for prayer in public life, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a federal case challenging the constitutionality of opening prayers at the town council meetings of Greece, New York. â€śIt is perfectly constitutional to allow community members to ask for God's blessing according to their conscience,â€ť Brett Harvey, Senior Counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, told CNA May 21. â€śA Supreme Court ruling reaffirming this historic tradition and...

Questioning “the motive and the reasoning” behind support for regime change in Iraq, Egypt, Syria, and Libya, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church said that Islamic fundamentalist regimes are “even worse” than authoritarian ones. Under such regimes, Christians “will be considered second class because of their religion in a country in which Islam is the only standard,” said Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako. “I think moderate Muslims should be aware and assure Christians that they, indeed, will be respected as equal citizens.” The patriarch made his remarks amid rising violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq. The nation’s...

The following is the homily Katherine Jeffords Schori read in Caracas, Venezuela. The topic is the passage from Acts, wherein Paul drives out what the bible plainly identifies as a demon from a girl. The beauty of this place is legendary. It is beautiful – and fragile, for its beauty depends on a dynamic balance among the parts of this island system. Many people don’t notice beauty around them until it’s gone. When we go somewhere that looks very different, often it takes a long time to appreciate that it has beauty, even though it’s a different kind of beauty....

The American Atheists of Cranford, N.J., announced Friday they will be sending books on atheism to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to be placed next to Gideon Bibles inside every cabin and lodge at the state's parks. On April 28, Ed Buchner, the former president of American Atheists, a nonprofit organization that was founded by Madalyn Murray O'Hair in 1963, complained to the Department after he found "nine Bibles" inside his cabin, according to American Atheists. In a move to avoid controversy, and a potential lawsuit, the decision was made to remove all Bibles from the state's parks that...

The revelations of the scandals within the Obama administration in the past couple of weeks make those of us who are old enough recall 1973, when Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s investigative reporting and then the hearings of a special Senate investigative committee brought to the public one astounding detail after another about Watergate. The current developments have been even more striking. One scandal or possible scandal after another, reaching across different executive branch agencies, have come to light in breathtakingly brief succession. There has been the apparent cover-up about the Benghazi episode, the Justice Department’s open-ended seizure of phone...

The linear conception of history is so seductive, even antagonistic groups like Enlightenment philosophers and Marxists adopt it. It pervades their attitude toward religion. Both believe society matures as it sheds its religious heritage. Infantile societies practice religion, but progressive societies are secular, they maintain.

RICHLAND, Wash. (BP) -- A florist who was told by the state of Washington she must provide her services for a gay wedding is countersuing the state, saying she has served gay customers her entire career and is concerned the state's position on gay weddings will harm religious freedom. The countersuit by Arlene's Flowers came weeks after Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued the florist when its owner, Barronelle Stutzman, declined to design a wedding floral arrangement for a longtime customer who is gay. Washington legalized gay marriage last year. The countersuit, filed by the group Alliance Defending Freedom, says...

New York City, N.Y., May 18, 2013 / 06:02 am (CNA).- Bill Donohue of the Catholic League said he was “stunned” that the IRS investigated his organization in 2008, charging that the Democrat-leaning group Catholics United filed the complaint and used it to argue that CNN should drop him as a commentator. “This was a fishing expedition meant to intimidate me and create a chilling effect on my freedom of speech,” Donohue said. “I still couldn’t believe that a couple of weeks after the election, I was being asked to spend my entire Thanksgiving trying to defend the Catholic League...

I got an interesting port on my Facebook page. Yes, I still have one that I use to keep up with friends and family, but it is quickly becoming very adversarial. I'll let the comments below speak for themselves. Let me know what you think.

The 2011 census puts the Muslim population of the UK at around 5 per cent, a total that has been boosted by around 600,000 Muslim immigrants who have arrived in the UK over the past decade. Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said to UK daily the Telegraph that the decline of Christianity is “inevitable.” “In another 20 years there are going to be more active Muslims than there are churchgoers,” he said.

Many Vatican-watchers interpreted the election of Pope Francis as Rome’s counter-offensive against the rise of neo-Pentecostalism in the global South. Pentecostalism is the fastest growing sect in the Latin America, where a third of the world’s Catholics live, and is giving the established Roman Church a run for its money — so to speak. The latest figures show that the numbers of Pentecostals throughout Latin America has soared since 1970 — when they represented a mere 4 percent of the population — to nearly 30 percent. In Guatemala it is estimated that four in ten are Pentecostals. Reasons for the...

New allegations claim the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) not only delayed the applications of new conservative groups, but also targeted a Christian group, Family Talk Action, and a well-established group, the Leadership Institute. In September 2011, well-known family advocate Dr. James Dobson's newest Christian ministry, Family Talk Action Corporation, filed a Form 1024 with the IRS requesting 501(c)(4) status. The attorney in charge had 26 years experience of filing these forms. "The Family Talk application was every bit as compliant as the ones he'd filled out in the past," said Alex McFarland, the group's Director of Apologetics. McFarland told The...

Dennis Prager and others have done an excellent job of highlighting the genuinely anti-Semitic content of a recent Church of Scotland publication entitled “The Inheritance of Abraham? A Report on the ‘Promised Land,’” and Prager has even called it “ugliest depiction of Jews since medieval times.” What has not been mentioned, however, is the great tradition of philo-Semitism in recent Scottish Church history, making the contrast all the more extreme. Some of the great Scottish Presbyterian leaders of the 19th century built on the heritage of English Puritan theologians like John Owen (1616-1683), who wrote, “The Jews shall be gathered...

The memorable play of Irish author and playwright Samuel Beckett, "Waiting for Godot," has become a metaphor for situations in which people wait for someone unlikely to come, or do not even know what they are expecting. They just keep waiting and waiting. The handful of Orthodox Greeks left in Turkey appear to be waiting for Godot, too, caught in a very typical Turkish situation. The Theological School of Halki, which is attached to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, has been closed down since 1971. Almost every day for the past 42 years, the Orthodox community has been anticipating the news of...

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied asylum to a Christian family that came to America to homeschool their children. As previously reported, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike fled to the United States in 2008 after German authorities demanded that they stop homeschooling their six children. Homeschooling was made illegal in the country in 1938 under the dictatorship of Adolph Hitler, and the law has never been repealed.......

Syrian troops crushed armed insurgent groups on Saturday at the southern edge of the capital. According to a Syrian military source, as a result of the anti-terrorist operations, the Deraa-Damascus highway, which leads to the border with Jordan, has been completely cleared of terrorist and insurgent forces, Voice of Russia Reported.The Army, reports the SANA news agency, has engaged in a successful offensive in the southern direction.â€śIn the area of â€‹â€‹Khirbet Gazzalya the army encircled and destroyed large patches of armed extremists who terrorized citizens, and engaged in sabotage and looting,â€ť said the agency.The army also liberated Jassem on the...

The Controversy Over the Third Secret: Objections and Responses | Fr. Andrew Apostoli, C.F.R. | Appendix D from Fatima For Today: The Urgent Marian Message of Hope The Third Secret has been dealt with in two chapters in this book. Chapter 8 presented the content of the Third Secret as Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta saw it revealed to them. Chapter 16 presented how Sister Lucia wrote the Third Secret on a separate manuscript and then placed it in a sealed envelope. The chapter also traces what popes John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II did after reading it. The...

Proposed legislation would legalize abortion when the mother’s life is at risk. But the measure is medically unnecessary, many Irish doctors say.Ireland’s coalition government is pushing ahead with controversial plans to legalize abortion despite growing opposition from within the medical community. Pro-life campaigners have also dismissed claims by Prime Minister Enda Kenny that the draft law is limited in scope, saying it will lead to widespread abortion. Ireland and Malta are currently the only countries in Europe where abortion is still illegal. A draft of the so-called Protection of Life in Pregnancy legislation was published after protracted negotiations between the...

Beijing, May 13, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes the Russian Orthodox Church and religious organizations of China could work together on strengthening morals in the world. "We have common moral tasks. These are global tasks. We see a sharp moral decline in many countries of the world, especially in the Western civilization," the patriarch said during a meeting with representatives of Chinese religious communities in Beijing on Monday. All laws are based on morals and moral decline "will lead to the collapse of the entire system of human relations and mankind will commit suicide," he...

The Blessed Virgin Mary is venerated under this title following apparitions to three shepherd children — Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco — in Portugal in 1917. The message of Fatima includes a call to conversion of heart, repentance from sin and a dedication to the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially through praying the Rosary. This optional memorial is new to the USA liturgical calendar and is inscribed on May 13. According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Robert Bellarmine. He was famous throughout Europe as a theologian,...

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY is being redefined in America, or at least many would like it to be. Our secular establishment wants to reduce the autonomy of religious institutions and limit the influence of faith in the public square. The reason is not hard to grasp. In America, “religion” largely means Christianity, and today our secular culture views orthodox Christian churches as troublesome, retrograde, and reactionary forces. They’re seen as anti-science, anti-gay, and anti-women—which is to say anti-progress as the Left defines progress. Not surprisingly, then, the Left believes society will be best served if Christians are limited in their influence on...

On 10 May the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church was received by President Xi Jinping, leading to the creation of a new Moscow-Beijing axisThe overture to Patriarch Kirill’s official visit to China marked an important moment in relations between China and the Orthodox Church. Yesterday, in the Great Hall of the People, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church had the privilege of meeting Chinese President, Xi Jinping. “You are the first Patriarch of Moscow and the first supreme religious leader from Russia to visit our country,” Xi told Kirill, presenting this unprecedented event as a “clear sign of...

I wrote HERE about Jesuit-run Boston Collegeâ€™s plan to have anti-Catholic catholic, pro-abortion Prime Minister of Ireland Enda Kenny speak at commencement and then confer on him an honor.Outrageous. Shades of Notre Shame.Now I read at the site of the Cardinal Newman Society (see their feed on the side bar) that the local Archbishop, Sean Card. Oâ€™Malley, will boycott the event. Cardinal Sean Oâ€™Malley Will Boycott Boston College CommencementArchdiocese of Bostonâ€™s Cardinal Sean Oâ€™Malley said today that he plans to boycott Boston Collegeâ€™s commencement ceremony May 20 because it will feature Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny as its commencement speaker....

Archdiocese of Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley said today that he plans to boycott Boston College's commencement ceremony May 20 because it will feature Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny as its commencement speaker. The College is scheduled to award Kenny an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Kenny supports loosening the country's legislation against abortion. “Since the university has not withdrawn the invitation and because the Taoiseach (prime minister) has not seen fit to decline, I shall not attend the graduation,’’ O’Malley said in a statement released this afternoon. “It is my ardent hope that Boston College will work to redress the...

HOUSTON, TX (Catholic Online) - Finding that there is no law against what they were doing, a judge ruled that the cheerleaders violated no laws by holding banners during football games that made references to God. Koutnze Middle School cheerleaders say they have a tradition of making biblical and religious references on the banners which they hold at the end of halftime and the players run through when they return to the field. It's a widespread tradition practiced at schools across the nation. However, when the "Freedom from Religion Foundation" a litigious atheist organization whose purpose is to destroy any...

A few weeks ago Mitt Romney spoke at a college commencement exercise and encouraged the graduates to marry early and have a lot of children. He used the words Â“quiver fullÂ” taken from the Old Testament.The comment was unremarkable, particularly for a Mormon to make. They are known for marrying early and having quivers full of children. Contra the contraceptive culture, even among Evangelicals, the notion of a quiver full from the Psalms is gathering steam among orthodox believers.Here is what he said, Â“You only live one life. DonÂ’t spend it in safe, shallow water. Launch into the deep. If...

Vatican City, May 10, 2013 / 07:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt met with Pope Francis at the Vatican and spoke about the urgent need for unity among Christians in the Middle East. â€śWe must prepare our people for this very real and needed unity that we know and live, we must work quickly and seriously,â€ť said Pope Tawadros II in May 10 remarks provided to CNA by his office. His visit to the Vatican is significant because he leades Egyptâ€™s largest Christian Church with ten million members, as well as historic,...

The evangelical "Pray for Reform: 92 Days of Prayer and Action to Pass Immigration Reform" campaign called on Congress in a press call on Wednesday to pass meaningful legislation in the next 92 days, throwing further support behind the current momentum in Congress to finally pass a immigration reform bill. The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, explained in the press call that the number 92 is significant for evangelicals because the Hebrew word for immigration is mentioned 92 times in the Old Testament. "This number represents the biblical call to welcome the stranger. I'm...

The Vatican (LifeNews.com) The Catholic Church has made it clear in the past that it strongly opposes abortion and wants pro-abortion politicians to rethink their views or consider refraining from taking communion. Pope Benedict XVI stepped up those warnings Wednesday saying pro-abortion politicians have excommunicated themselves. He also said he elected officials who support abortion would be prevented from receiving communion. The pontiff was asked about the topics in reference to a threat from the Catholic bishops in Mexico to excommunicate members of the Mexico City legislative assembly who recently voted to legalize abortion in the nation’s capital. “Yes, this...